Indispensable
by TortoiseNHare64
Summary: Keith and Lance crash land on a planet after getting sucked into its atmosphere. After getting injured by an alien creature, Keith has to be carried by Lance back to their lions. Keith discovers that Lance has a list of embarrassing things about Keith and Lance finds out Keith has a bit of a list of his own...but of a slightly different nature. Cute one-shot.


**Author's Note: Thank you for reading! Please leave a review when you're finished!**

 **XXXXXXX**

"That looks infected."

"It's fine."

"If whatever was in that venom gets into your bloodstream then you might –"

"That's fine too."

Lance glared at Keith before looking back out at their surroundings. "We just need to make it back to the lions so that I can patch you up." Lance glanced back down at the gash across Keith's leg that was oozing blood and a greenish puss. Shrugging off his jacket, Lance gestured for Keith to hold out his leg. "I'm going to give it a temporary binding. My jacket's thicker than yours so the blood should stay put."

Keith didn't protest but watched warily as Lance wrapped his jacket snugly around Keith's injured leg. When he was done, Lance leaned back, wiped the sweat off of his forehead, and said, "Let me carry you."

"Really?"

"Keith, I don't like the idea anymore than you do, but right now we are severely pressed for time and you can't walk on your own. So hop on." Lance turned his back to Keith and squatted down so that the Black Paladin could climb on.

Keith gave Lance a disbelieving look but caved after a moment and maneuvered himself onto Lance's back, wrapping his arms around Lance's neck and chest.

"Good. Right. Okay," Lance muttered to himself as he steadied Keith on him. This was the closest the two of them had been in awhile and it was slightly distracting. He could feel Keith's heartbeat against his spine. But Keith's health was failing and Lance had to focus. _No time for weird thoughts now!_ Lance looked back out through the forest and glanced down at the tracker on his wrist. The majority of their technology had failed them after the crash landing, but the old-fashioned tracker on his wrist still seemed to function. An arrow flashed pointing northeast. "If you die on me, I'm going to personally kill you."

"That makes no sense."

Lance ignored him and began trekking through the forest.

 **XXXXXX**

"I'm surprised with you being half-alien and all that you're not, like, immune to all alien venom."

Keith resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he huffed out, "In what realm of existence does that make sense?"

"The Galra have all kinds of crazy powers. I figured healing would be one of them or something."

"You're 100% human. Does that mean you're immune to all human diseases?"

Lance pursed his lips but didn't respond. Keith had a point.

 **XXXXXXX**

It felt as though they had been wandering for hours. Keith tried sneaking looks down at Lance's wrist every now and then to try and tell how close they were to the lions but it was impossible to tell. The tracker only informed them of which direction to go – not how long it would take to get there. Keith knew Lance's jacket was soaked through with his blood but he couldn't bring himself to look at the wound.

"Lance, put me down."

"Are you crazy? No."

"Lance, if you put me down then you'll be able to hurry back to the lions faster and get the first aid supplies."

"No way, man. I might not be able to find you again if I did that."

Keith wanted to argue but he knew Lance had a point. The density of the forest proved difficult to navigate. If it weren't for Lance's tracker, they wouldn't have any idea of how to get to their lions. The mental link they shared with Red and Black had somehow been severed.

"Do you think it's the planet messing with our mental link?"

"Probably," Keith replied. His vision had started to cloud. He focused on resisting the urge to rest his chin on Lance's shoulder and close his eyes. "Allura said this planet has a lot of magical energy attached to it. That's probably why we ran into so many issues when we entered its atmosphere."

"Why couldn't the creatures on this planet be friendly aliens like the Balmerans?" Lance complained. "They have magical mumbo jumbo and they didn't want to kill us."

"I'm pretty sure if you insulted Hunk in front of Shay then you'd change your mind about that."

Lance audibly scoffed. "As if I'd ever insult Hunk."

Keith felt a smile tug at his lips.

 **XXXXXXX**

"You know, this probably isn't the time to tell you this, but I thought that with all the training you do that you'd be lighter."

"It's not my fault you repeatedly skip arm day."

"Hey, I got awesome arm muscles! Carrying my bayard around all day in its gun form is quite the work out, I'll have you know."

Keith sniggered in response and Lance was half-tempted to drop him. Lance tilted his head slightly so that he could look into Keith's face and saw that the Black Paladin's eyes had closed.

"Hey man, stay with me here."

"You're really warm," Keith replied. His voice sounded groggy with sleep.

"If you start snuggling, I'm going to kill you."

Keith didn't reply and Lance let out a huff. He refused to admit how nice Keith felt against him, circumstances aside.

 **XXXXXXX**

When Keith's head drooped and his cheek landed against Lance's shoulder, the new Red Paladin jumped.

"Keith, wake up. You can't pass out on me now! We're almost there."

Keith didn't reply. Instead, Lance felt Keith's breathing even out against his neck. Ignoring the shudder that wracked his frame at the sensation, Lance continued on his mission. He knew he had to hurry.

Keith didn't have much time left.

 **XXXXXXX**

When the soft puffs against his neck slowed down to a sluggish lull, Lance's anxiety skyrocketed.

"Keith, hey, fearless leader, come on, wake up! We're almost there! Really! Please man, come on! Stay with me here."

Lance's arms were sore from carrying Keith for so long. It probably hadn't been for more than an hour but it was difficult to tell time in this forest. The worst part was that there was no way to tell whether or not the tracker was sending them in the right direction or how close they actually were to the lions. He had to keep going, though. If he stopped now, then he might not have the strength to keep going.

Keith mumbled in his sleep but it was incoherent. A few seconds later Keith mumbled again.

"Really? You talk in your sleep? When you wake up I'll be sure to add that to the List of Embarrassing Things About Keith."

Keith didn't reply to Lance's ribbing and the Red Paladin pouted.

"If you don't wake up this minute then I'm going to start going through the list loudly so that every being in this forest can hear!" Lance waited a few ticks but Keith was unresponsive. Giving a frustrated sigh, Lance let out, "Fine then! But just remember that I warned you." Loudly, he declared, "Number one: Keith talks in his sleep!" When the forest didn't seem to be impressed with the news, Lance grumbled to himself about how ungrateful the forest was for such juicy gossip. He waited a few minutes while he continued on through the forest before announcing the second item on his list. "Number two: Keith's mullet. Need I say more?" Predictably, the forest didn't reply and Lance let out a sigh. Adopting an obnoxious falsetto, Lance replied to his own question in what he imagined the forest to sound like with, " _Yes, please, handsome hero! Do describe to us why Keith's mullet is so embarrassing!_ " Returning his voice to normal, Lance replied, "Well of course, forest! Allow me to explain. For starters, it is a mullet. And everyone with common sense knows that mullets went out of style back in the '80's. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were never in style to begin with. For another thing, they're impractical in combat! Everyone knows that an enemy would have an easier time of yanking your hair with it that long! And as the leader of Voltron, Keith is indispensible. He's making it harder on himself than he has to be."

A wistful voice asked him from somewhere deep in the back of his mind, "He is indispensible, you say? Why is that?"

"Well, because he's the leader! Well, our current leader anyway." Lance blinked and it took a minute for the fact that something _had_ spoken to him to catch up to him. Quickly looking around, Lance didn't see anyone. There weren't any woodland creatures or weird Ent-like creatures to be found.

"I must have imagined it," he decided, quickening his pace.

 **XXXXXX**

The silence eventually got to Lance. Keith's breathing was still slow and steady against his neck. When Lance looked down and behind them, he didn't see a trail of blood following them. That meant Keith wasn't leaking as badly anymore, which was good. Or the puss had fully seeped into his bloodstream and it was only a few ticks until the Black Paladin stopped breathing altogether.

"Alright then, that's enough morbid thoughts for now!" Lance announced loudly as he trekked on. "I need something to distract my mind. Right! The list! Where was I? Right, I was on number three!"

He knew he was babbling but babbling was good. Babbling meant he didn't have to focus entirely on the possible outcomes of this adventure.

"Number three: Keith can't jump rope. I don't really understand _how_ he managed to go this many deca-phoebs without learning, but it's true. How embarrassing is that? I mean, most people learn when they're like seven or eight. Good thing we haven't had to face a jump rope monster or anything. Because he would totally be eaten in four ticks flat." Lance didn't say anything for a few moments as he pondered his situation. "I probably shouldn't be announcing the leader of Voltron's weaknesses to you, forest. But they're not _really_ weaknesses. I mean…they're just embarrassing! Yeah! That's it! Embarrassing facts about Keith Kogane. Definitely _not_ weaknesses."

It sounded weak even to his own ears.

Gulping, Lance tried to plow forward in his thought process. "Any-anyway, let's just focus on the fourth thing. Number four: Keith sleeps with a stuffed hippo. _That_ isn't a weakness, at least!" Lance thought he heard the leaves of the trees around him shift slightly and he interpreted it as laughter. "I know, right? A stuffed hippo? How lame is that! It's true though. One night, when everyone was asleep, I wanted to prank him by putting his fingers in a cup of water and seeing if he'd pee himself but when I managed to get into his bedroom, I saw him all curled up there with a stuffed animal. I laughed so hard I woke up the entire castle. Keith was _so_ pissed at me. It was worth it though." His expression softened at the memory. "You should've seen the way he was all curled up around the stupid thing, too. I've never seen the dude look that peaceful before. It was a good look on him."

A rustling in the trees caused Lance to realize what he had said and he quickly shook his head. "Don't laugh at me! You _should_ be laughing at _him_." The trees continued their swaying and Lance pouted. "What? Keith is like a constant ball of raging fire. Before that moment I had honestly thought him incapable of resting. Even when we have downtime on the castle, Keith is _always_ on the training deck or locked away in his room."

Lance tilted his head to look down at Keith's sleeping face. "I guess he _does_ look pretty peaceful now, but this is different. He's on the verge of death here!"

Returning his attention to his mission, Lance continued following the direction his tracker pointed him in.

 **XXXXXX**

"Number five: Keith doesn't know how to dance. There was this big ball thing that all the paladins got invited to a few phoebs ago and there was an awesome dance floor but Keith didn't go near it. Hunk and I took care of impressing all the cute girls there with our sick moves. Apparently, when Hunk asked Keith to come dance with us, our fearless leader confessed to him that he didn't know how. Can you _believe_ that? _Everyone_ knows how to dance! Or at least how to sway along to a beat." As Lance thought back on the memory, he frowned. "Keith was really embarrassed over the whole thing. I think he was frustrated at himself for not trying. He probably didn't want to risk looking like an idiot in front of Hunk and I. It seems like he's always afraid of messing up. I don't know why – I mess up all the time! All of us do. It doesn't mean that he has to hold himself to a higher standard just because he's the leader."

"You should tell him that."

"Psh, as if he would ever listen to me," Lance replied, not realizing that that voice had spoken to him again. "Although, I guess I _could_ teach him to dance some time. If – if he wanted, that is." The Red Paladin wasn't sure why a blush had suddenly graced his features. The idea of dancing with Keith was surprisingly not repulsive. "I – I – I don't have to teach him any romantic shit like the waltz or the tango or anything! Just small stuff."

"You _want_ to teach him that stuff, though."

"I…" Lance trailed off and suddenly his tracer started loudly beeping. "We're almost there! Keith! Keith, we did it!"

The Black Paladin gave no response but it didn't matter – Lance's stamina had been rejuvenated. Forgetting all about the mysterious voice of the forest and its meddling, Lance sprinted forward. Sure enough, soon the dense forest gave way to a clearing that held both lions.

"WOOHOO! WE DID IT!"

The mental connection was still severed between the lions and their pilots, but the black lion lowered its head to allow Lance to climb in with Keith on his back. Gently placing Keith down in the pilot's chair, Lance unwrapped his jacket from around the boy's leg and began searching for the first aid kit.

"Don't worry Keith, we made it. Everything's fine now."

Lance pulled the first aid kit from its compartment and hunched down to inspect Keith's wound. His leg had entirely turned green. Not a definite green like Pidge's suit, but more a greenish-black. Willing down the desire to vomit, Lance poured some healing ointment onto Keith's wound and began wrapping it in proper bandages.

"Allura said that this stuff cures almost all venomous bites from creatures similar to the one that bit you. I can't believe these damn things are found on every planet in this galaxy. You know, for all your agility, you can be really careless sometimes."

Despite his harsh words, Lance's touch was gentle as he finished wrapping Keith's leg. Leaning back with a sigh, Lance inspected Keith. As the ointment seeped in, his breathing slowly returned to its normal rate. He still wouldn't wake up though.

"Hey, Black Lion? Is there anything else you can do to, I don't know, make sure your pilot doesn't die?" The lion gave no response and Lance huffed. "Of course not. Why did I ever think you'd be useful? Okay, I'm going to go see if I can repair Red and send out a distress signal. Can you _please_ alert me if anything changes with Keith?" The lion gave no response and Lance let out a frustrated scream. "I _hate_ this!"

 **XXXXXX**

Lance eventually managed to fix some of the controls that had gone haywire in Red's cockpit in order to send out a distress beacon. It took a great deal of scientific effort to configure the _right_ signal that could penetrate past the planet's atmosphere. Lance kind of wished Pidge had been there to be proud of him for actually remembering some of the tech knowledge he learned at the Garrison. Lance didn't have the tools to fix the injured lions, so they would have to wait for the castle to come to them. The castle had been orbiting the galaxy while the other lions went on their own missions to explore the other planets anyway. Coran wouldn't be far away.

Red and Black had lined up their cockpits so that Lance could easily walk between the two. While Black still refused to talk to him – the lion probably assumed it had been Lance's fault that Keith had been hurt in the first place – the lion at least had agreed to maneuver itself to make Lance's life easier. Crossing between the lions, Lance went to Keith's side. The Black Paladin's leg had returned to its normal coloring.

"That's more like it," Lance said with a relieved sigh. Taking a few steps forward, Lance crouched down beside the pilot's chair and just looked at Keith. Lance honestly didn't know what he would have done if he had lost Keith. He couldn't bear to think about it. He couldn't resist the urge to push Keith's bangs out of his eyes. At the gentle contact, Keith stirred in his sleep. Slowly, he blinked his eyes open. After his vision cleared and he could properly see his surroundings, Keith turned his gaze to Lance.

"Lance?"

"Hey buddy," Lance whispered, his voice laced heavily with fondness. "Glad to see you're awake."

"What happened?"

"I got you back to the lions," Lance replied rather proudly. "Patched you up and waited for the venom to clear out. You'll probably need some time in a healing pod but at least you're not dead. I managed to fix a few of the comms. I sent out a distress signal and now we're just waiting for Coran to guide the castle to come back and get us."

"Wow. That's…that's great. I'm really proud of you, Lance."

Lance's heart thumped loudly in his chest at the praise. He had genuinely surprised and impressed Keith. "H-hey man, don't go getting all sappy on me now. Maybe you really _are_ dying."

Keith grinned in response as he slowly shifted up in the chair to sit up straight. "Actually, I don't feel like I'm slowly heading towards the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. What was in that healing stuff you gave me?"

"I don't know. Probably some of Allura's secret Altean savior-juice."

An awkward silence emerged between them. Lance was just about to make up an excuse to leave and go back to his own cockpit when Keith cleared his throat and said, "I dreamed while I was asleep."

"Yeah, I heard you mumbling a couple of times."

Keith's face took on an interesting shade of red as he asked, "Was anything coherent?"

Lance wanted to tease him. He wanted to make up some story about Keith professing his undying love for space goo in his sleep or something, but the brief vulnerability that flashed over the leader's face made him pause.

"Nah. You were out like a light."

Keith seemed to relax at that and the smile returned to his face. "Cool."

"What did you dream about?" Lance asked curiously.

Keith looked away from him and moved forward to try and bring his lion's controls back online. "It doesn't matter."

"Oh come on, I carried you a dozen miles through a jungle! The least you can do is let me in on your embarrassing dreams."

"So you can add them to your list?"

Lance paused and his mouth fell slightly open. Keith smirked in response.

"You know about my list?"

"I thought I had dreamed it all up but apparently you actually _do_ have a list."

Lance crossed his arms and turned his chin up defensively. "It's not _my_ fault you're so easy to make fun of! If you didn't have so many weird, embarrassing traits, then I wouldn't have to keep track of them!"

"You do realize that nobody is asking you to keep track of them, right?" Keith asked as he fiddled around with his lion's controls.

Lance frowned at him but the look twisted into one of concern. "Hey, shouldn't you rest? Your body isn't in top-notch condition yet."

"I need to work on the Black Lion's controls."

"Let me help."

Keith paused and gave Lance an incredulous look. Feigning insult, Lance spluttered, "I'm not as useless as you think!"

Keith cocked an eyebrow. "Shouldn't _you_ be the one resting? You did hike through hell and high water to rescue me."

Having the Black Paladin concerned for his well-being made Lance's stomach twist in a funny way. Stubbornly not looking at Keith, Lance replied, "I'm fine. I sat around for two hours while I fixed Red."

"Well then _I'm fine_ for doing nothing but spending over three hours not moving."

The two shared a familiar glare. Neither was willing to back down. A roar from Red caused them both to jump and end their glaring contest. Turning back to his lion, Lance asked what the matter was. Keith watched as Lance quickly returned to his own cockpit to check the console. The Black Paladin tried to follow him but a sharp stinging in his leg caused him to pause. Apparently he wasn't as fully cured as he thought.

"What is it, Lance?"

"Coran's sent a message through! Everyone's on their way!"

Keith let out a sigh of relief. "Awesome. Now get over here and help me with these controls."

"I thought you didn't need my help?"

"Shut up."

 **XXXXXX**

A few hours later, Lance had showered and was lounging in the common room of the castle in sweatpants and a tank top. It hadn't taken Coran long at all to retrieve them. Like the perfect father/uncle figure he was, Coran refused to let either of them relax in the castle until they had both spent some time in the healing pods. Keith's leg was fully cured of the venom and Lance's muscles didn't ache anymore. They hadn't spoken to one another since returning to the castle.

Hunk wandered into the common room and plopped down beside Lance.

"How're you holding up?"

Lance gave him a confused expression. "What do you mean?"

Hunk scratched the back of his neck. "Allura said that the magical energy of the planet can sometimes play with your head. Give you weird thoughts or something. I figured I'd check in and see if you're still the same Lancey Lance we know and love."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh _please_. I'm way stronger than any mumbo jumbo that planet could have cursed on me."

"Keith doesn't seem fine."

Lance raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I went to check in on him and he seems pretty closed off. More so than usual. I think you should go talk to him."

"Why me?"

"You were both on that planet together. You said that Keith got injured, right? Maybe it got to his head. I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right with him."

Lance gave an exasperated sigh but couldn't fight the internal concern that Hunk's words brought him. "Alright, alright, I'll go check on the mullet. Yeesh."

 **XXXXXX**

Lance knocked on the door to Keith's bedroom and waited for the door to slide open. Poking his head in, he looked around and found Keith cleaning his blade on his bed. Keith didn't look up and acknowledge Lance's entrance.

"Uhhh, you okay, man? Hunk said you were acting kind of funny when he stopped in before."

"I'm fine."

"Really?" Lance said flatly, "Because it seems like you're about a tick away from snapping someone's head off."

Keith sighed and Lance moved deeper into the room, letting the door close behind him.

"I'm not mad, I'm just…I'm frustrated at myself for getting hurt in the first place. You were right – the team leader shouldn't be careless."

Lance leaned against the bedpost and put a finger to his chin in contemplation. "If I recall correctly, I also said that the team leader shouldn't try so hard to be perfect at all times."

"Voltron depends on me. The universe depends on me. The _team_ depends on me. I can't keep slipping up."

"Dude, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself," Lance replied. "Everybody makes mistakes." Giving a shit-eating grin, Lance sang, "Everybody has those days."

Oblivious to the reference, Keith raised a speculative brow before giving a sigh. "Shiro didn't. I can't."

Lance reached out and put a hand on Keith's shoulder. " _Yes_ , you can. And you will. But we'll always be there to lend a hand. That's what teams _do_. They help each other out. You're not perfect and you never will be. But when you mess up, we'll be there to help. I'll be there. Like I said, you're indispensable."

Something in Keith's expression softened. He gave Lance a genuine smile as he whispered, "Yeah. I know you will. Thanks, by the way. For today. You really helped me out there."

Lance couldn't stop the blush that touched the tips of his ears as he took in the heartfelt expression Keith had on. "Ah, don't worry about it. Anytime." Lance quickly pulled his hand back from Keith's shoulder and rubbed the back of his neck.

"You know, you're not the only one with a list," Keith confessed after a minute.

Lance raised his eyebrow and Keith smirked. The Red Paladin realized what Keith meant and his eyes grew wide. "What do you mean?"

Keith leaned back on the bed and began counting off on his fingers. "Number one: your dumb jokes. Number two: the way you simultaneously always want the attention on you but somehow still find a way to make everyone feel included. Number three: your dumb dance moves. Number four –"

"Whoah, whoah, whoah, I'll have you know that my dance moves _rock_! What kind of a list is that?"

Keith looked up at him from under his bangs as he said, "My 'List of Reasons Why Lance Is Alright'"

Lance didn't know what to say to that. For the first time in a while, he found himself speechless. Keith's grin grew as he stood up with a faint blush and moved past Lance to leave the room. Turning his head slightly, Keith said over his shoulder, "But if you tell anyone I have that list, I might send your butt back down to that shitty planet."

As the door slid shut behind Keith, Lance decided that he was going to find a way to convince Keith to tell him the rest of what was on that list.


End file.
